Thursday, August 22, 2002

Played around for a little while there with some new background possibilities, based on input xian's been getting over at Radio Free Blogistan. (which reminds me - a while back xian mentioned having registered radiofreeblogistan.com and freeblogistan.com. They don't go anywhere yet! I wanna be able to point people to radiofreeblogistan.com! Anyway...) The first image was from Brian Wood's great comic, Channel Zero. The second was also designed by Brian, but used as a publicity flyer at the graphic novel review site started by Warren Ellis, artbomb.net. I ended up deciding that I like my current setup too much to give it up - but please, do let me know if this layout/background is causing problems for you.

11:27:32 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

BT Loses Case Over Hyperlink Patent [Slashdot] yaaaaay! This was just ridiculous - British Telecom was actually trying to claim they owned the patent on hyperlinking. Rrrright. It's nice to see a case this stupid just get squashed.
8:34:53 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

The Sox are now up 11-0. And I've confirmed that I have a mover for my move next week - at a LOT less than professional movers. My dad's group of friends getting together to play bridge every month is finally paying off for me. =)
8:13:46 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Bush eases US logging restrictions [BBC World] That headline is why I love love love getting BBC news. In the States, the media is at least using headlines that the Bush junta wants - 'Bush proposes new regulations to fight forest fires', etc... The Beeb, on the other hand, just gets to the point. Baseball update - Dustin Hermanson, the cursed Red Sox pitcher, just got a line drive hit straight at him by Rangers catcher Ivan Rodriguez. Logic would dictate that the ball would, well, kill him. Instead, he gets out of the way, reaches his glove hand behind his back instinctively...and snares the ball in the web of his glove. Wow. Even Rodriguez stopped running to first base, smiled at Hermanson and clapped. Niiiiice catch.

7:38:43 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Well, Johnny Damon hurt his hand sliding into first, but then Manny Ramirez and Cliff Floyd hit back-to-back home runs. Yeah, they've got me hooked. It's very Godfather-via-Sopranos "Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in!". 'course, it's going to rain just about now - wait, Jason Varitek just hit a double off the wall to drive in Shea Hillenbrand and make it a 4-0 game. And my roommate is predicting that it'll rain like hell and the game will get wiped out... Yup - here comes the rain. The best case scenario for the Red Sox for the rest of the season - they win every game between now and the end of the month, they're the hottest team in baseball, just out of the playoffs...and the strike wipes out the rest of the regular season. Damn, I hate them. *sigh*

7:29:22 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

OK - on further reading, the Multi-Author Weblog Tool is completely inapproriate for what Warren Ellis proposes below. It requires that every user have their own copy of Radio, which isn't really possible when you're talking about X > 50 possible posters. So I'm thinking the best way to do this would most likely be with Email-to-Weblog. I've found some talk at UserLand's discussion groups on how to do category posting from Email-to-Weblog posts, and from the code in Radio and on the discussion groups, I think could add image capability and other hooks pretty easily. Anyone have any idea if something like this has been tried/done in Radio before?

5:06:23 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

From Warren Ellis' Bad Signal mailing list: Subject: BAD SIGNAL: Promocomics.com To: badsignal@lists.flirble.org bad signal WARREN ELLIS   badsignal-unsubscribe@lists.flirble.org   One of the things that The Warren Ellis Forum was best at was selling comics.  WEF has some 20,000 registered members.  At its height before I announced the October closure, close to 2500 people a day were moving through the forum, and it wasn't the same 2500 people every day.  (And that's not hits, by the way -- the Delphi software registers individual users, and doesn't count multiple logins by the same individual.)  That means that when someone posted about their comic on WEF, many thousands of people saw it during the week.  When the place was working, it could add several hundred readers to a project.  And in days when some indie books struggle the 500-order nut that ensures Diamond will continue to carry them for distribution, that matters   Mass-market print magazines aren't talking about Leland Purvis or Carla Speed McNeil.  The internet needs to work for these people, because nothing else does.  And it *does* work for them.  Even a plug in Bad Signal can make a difference to people.    So here's an idea I'm giving away for free.   Buy yourself some cheap webspace. Loads of people do big cheap webspace now, from Silver Bullet Hosting to Cyberwings.  Get yourself a domain name like promocomics.com. Grab the Delphi emulator software from Webvelosix.  This is important. It allows full HTML posting, which allows image linking.  Visual message boards make all the difference. That's a big part of why WEF worked. It means that, while you tell someone about something, you can also show them, through image linking.  You can put an image from your book up on your own webspace - I use free webspace from virtualave.net -- and then you type into your forum message the code <img src="http://theURLofmy image.com"> and it appears in the board message. People don't have to click out to see what you're talking about.  It makes hype messages more interesting and more effective.   You set it up, and you open it up to anyone working in comics.  Suddenly, you have the alternative Previews catalogue, as supplied by all the people underserved by the extant distribution system.   This sort of thing requires heavy moderator presence.  You can't do it half-arsed.  I've had nine moderators working with me during the last four years of WEF, including a constant team of seven during the last several months.  Couldn't have done it without them.  The Delphi/Webvelosix software provides an excellent range of moderator tools, from editing other people's messages to fix and enhance them to locking people out of the place entirely.  You'll need those if the place isn't to turn into the kind of zoo you find at Comicon or Newsarama.   Write the community properly and you'll quickly see it become more than the sum of its parts.  Include a section for general conversation.  Encourage people to post pictures of themselves, so they can see who they're talking to -- you'll be amazed at how that effects the tone of online conversation.  Watch creators hook up with each other and form a wedge.   Come up with a good name and a good logo, and set up a t-shirt sales operation on Cafe Press.  Arrange an Amazon bookstore.  You'll only see a few hundred a year out of all of it, but I bet that'll cover your webspace costs.   As it grows, you'll see retailers and publishers come in to see what's going on.  Particularly retailers: Brian Hibbs and Rory Root and Manda Fisher and Mike Drivas and Matt Lehmann and Gib Bickel and Mike Drivas and Joe Field and Joel Pollack and Robert Scott and all the others who tend to lead the conversation in the retail community.  (And, you know, if you're working in comics, you should be seeking out people like this on an individual basis anyway.  There goes another state secret.)  The people you need to get talking.   All this really requires is a little bit of money and a great deal of time. A team of like-minded people could do it with surprising ease.   Free idea.  Do with it what you will. -- W There's something here - I'm thinking multi-author weblogs might actually be the best medium for what Warren's talking about. The creators would have the ability to publish their information, the vox populi could mouth off in comments all they wanted without crowding the actual content. Plus, it seems like the kind of thing that weblogs are just MEANT to do. I need to think about this, and read up more on Radio's multi-author and email capabilities. Categories could be set up by creator or genre...all kinds of fun stuff that Radio would handle happily. Hmm.

4:52:53 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

My decision has been made on whether or not to go to the baseball game tonight: Pedro's not pitching. I would have been willing to go, even with my disgust with the Red Sox, if it meant a chance to finally see Pedro Martinez pitch in Boston. I saw him start a game in Cleveland a few years back - the semi-infamous Robbie Alomar beanball game. I also saw him pitch six innings of no-hit relief in Game 5 ALDS '99, but I could go on about that forever - seriously, I have a ten page story about that night. I got obsessive. Instead, they'll be starting a guy by the name of Dustin Hermanson, who's just off the DL. There's a big chunk of irony here. See, there's two reasons they're not starting Pedro - first, so that he can pitching against the Angels this weekend, who are ahead of the Sox in the wild card race. Games against them mean more than games against the lowly Rangers, tonight's opponent. But the second reason, y'see, is becuase of that weather you can see in the top right of this post (accurate circa 4pm EDT, 8/22/02). It's going to rain tonight, getting to Boston at around 8pm - meaning that the pitchers will be throwing during the rain for at least an inning or so before the game gets delayed. It's definitely not worth Pedro getting hurt pitching in tonight's game. The fun is that Hermanson, his replacement, has made two appearances for the Sox this year, after being a big-deal trade this off-season. One was one inning against the Yankees last month - he blew a game and went back on the DL. The first appearance...techincally, he didn't actually make it. The second game of the year, he was the starting pitcher - until he pulled his groin slipping on the...rain-covered mound. Yeah. So now he's going to make his second official appearence of the year in similar weather conditions to when he more or less ended his season. I'm highly amused. =)

4:17:39 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Just got home from watching Signs with my group from work. Consensus: five "it sucks", one "it's ok", and me "I liked it - I thought it was interesting". Then again, I'm a big fan of Unbreakable, so what do I know?
3:44:29 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

I'm off to Legal Seafood for a surprise birthday lunch for a coworker, followed by a movie paid for by my manager, followed by tonight's Red Sox game - if I choose to go. Haven't decided on that yet...anyway, I've been at work for three hours and now I'm leaving for the rest of the day. Sometimes, the world is a wonderful place. =)
11:10:05 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

posted by kirkaracha to Culture August 22 8:38 AM. Satans no more. A North Dakota high school voted to stop using its 80-year-old team name, the Satans. "[The public school board president] said that while a majority of the people would like to keep the name, there is a 'significant minority' that deserve to be respected." The high school? Devils Lake. [SportsFilter] What I find so cool about this is that for 80 years, there was a football team, a hockey team, a baseball team called the Devils Lake Satans...but it gets better. Were the girls' teams the Devils Lake Lady Satans? I want merchandising rights on that team name...

10:53:46 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []